Make it quick, Sid. We gotta go.
Sliding the gurney to the side, he grabbed the chrome handle to the Cadillac’s back door.
I hope it’s open. I didn’t see the keys. I’m sure I can hotwire it if need be.
He tugged on the back door latch and popped it a hair open. The door slammed right into him, knocking Smoke backward and crashing him into a motorcycle that was parked there.
The giant teenager crawled out of the back of the hearse, smashed his fist into his palm, and said, “You’re toast, little dude.”
CHAPTER 33
Gathering himself, Smoke went for his gun. The giant closed the gap in a moment, swinging his long arm like a whip and slapping the gun free of Smoke’s hand.
“You’re fast for a big fella.”
Towering over Smoke with his fists balled up like hammers, the giant said, “No, I’m very fast for a big fella, you little tool. And I can’t wait to crush your little head.”
Smoke drew his knife and said, “You’re welcome to try, but it won’t happen. Got a name, boy?”
“Lance.”
Shrugging, Smoke said, “Sounds like a little punk skateboarder name. Well, come on then, Lance. Let’s dance.”
Lance lunged at Smoke.
Striking like a snake, Smoke sliced a deep gash into Lance’s forearm.
“Argh!” Lance recoiled. Astonished, he said, “You cut me!”
“Sharp knives will do that to you. They can lance you too, Lance.”
They circled. With a tremor in his voice, Lance said, “I can handle everything you got. You can’t kill me, mortal.”
“I’m getting tired of hearing that. Keep saying it, though, so I can prove you wrong.”
Licking his lips, Lance eyed the knife in Smoke’s hand. “Look, I don’t want to do this. I’m just doing what I’m told.” He backed into a pair of trashcans and lifted his hands. “Just take Titus and leave me alone.”
Backing off, Smoke said, “If that’s the case, why did you attack me?”
“I don’t know. I was scared. Hell, I hid inside that hearse. I thought I was safe until you showed up.”
Surprised by the confession, Smoke lowered his guard.
In a burst of energy, Lance twisted around, grabbed a metal trashcan, and hurled it at Smoke.
Balling up, Smoke caught the full force of the half-empty can that skipped off his shoulder and clunked on the ground. “Bad move, Lance.” Smoke drew from his shoulder and ankle holsters. “I’m going to make you hurt.”
Lance snatched up the motorcycle and hoisted it over his head. “I can handle anything you got! Come on, shoot me, little man! Shoot me!”
No longer armed with the red-tipped bullets, Smoke settled for the blue-tipped and regular lead in his guns. He aimed for the gas tank and fired. The cycle turned into a ball of flame. With the second pistol, he shot at Lance’s eyes.
The big boy teetered backward into the funeral home wall, screaming with rage.
Smoke shoved the coffin into the hearse and closed the door.
Sidney showed up, gaping at the enraged Lance. He was swinging blindly at everything. “What’s the plan?”
“Call Cyrus and tell him to send a cleanup crew and that we’ll meet him near here.”
“Great,” Sid said, watching Lance and grabbing her phone. “So where are we going to meet?”
The sirens were getting louder.
“Somewhere with milkshakes.”
CHAPTER 34
Sid and Smoke were standing outside in a truck stop parking lot, hidden from plain view behind the semis. Her phone was on the hood of the hearse and the external speaker was on.
Cyrus’s voice was erupting from the phone. “Where are you? I’ve got people all over a blown-up funeral home and no sign of you guys or the mark!”
“Did you find a giant?” Sid asked. “He should have been easy to find, seeing how he was on fire when we left him.”
“Quit screwing around, Sid!” Cyrus replied. “Now where are you?”
Her eyes played with Smoke’s and she said, “We never discussed our fee. It’s one hundred thousand.”
“That’s outrageous! And you’re on the payroll!”
“No, no, no, we’re still in business as bounty hunters. I’m only on payroll as a liaison and special advisor. This is hazard duty you have us on.”
There was a pause on the other side of the line, and finally Cyrus said, “You know we’re on a tight budget. Purchasing limits me to twenty-five thousand.”
“I guess we let Titus Tolliver go then.” She looked over at Smoke. “Go ahead and let him out.”
“Sure thing,” Smoke said, opening up the back door of the hearse. He rolled the coffin out and lowered the bottom end to the ground.
“Listen to me, Sid. I can’t just pull that kind of money out of my crack. You know that. If you want those kinds of funds, I’m going to need to see some proof.”
She walked over to the coffin, watching Smoke open the latches. He pulled the top half of the coffin’s lid open. Titus had woken up and managed to wriggle himself around facing front, but he was tightly secured with ten pairs of flex cuffs. His beady eyes were full of hate.
Sid held up her phone.
Smoke said, “Say cheese, horn head.”
“You’ll regret this,” Titus spat. “The both of you!”
Sid tapped the buttons on her screen and said into the phone, “Coming over, Cyrus. Take a look and give us a call when the money hits our bank account. We’ll give you an hour before we set him free.”
Cyrus said, “When did you get this greedy streak in you?”
“Bye.” She hung up.
“Well played,” Smoke said to her. He held his gun on Titus. “Don’t even squirm.”
Titus scowled at him, but there was a little bit of fear in his eyes. They’d gotten under his stone-hard skin. “I’ll double what they aren’t even willing to pay you if you let me go,” he said.
“It’s not about the money. We just like jerking the FBI around. As for you and your ilk, well, you need to go down. You’re a cancer on this place.”
“People are the cancer, not us. So destitute. So depraved. You can’t stop what we’re doing. No one ever has, and no one ever will.” Titus’s eyes glanced back and forth between the two of them and settled on Sid. “You should do like your sister did. Be a part of this. The both of you.”
“Why do you want us so bad? You have plenty of willing people who won’t hesitate to take you up on your offer.” Sid tucked her phone into her pocket. “What is going on with you people?”
“This is just a last-ditch effort to recruit you. Both of you, but you’re too stubborn to see the light.” Titus craned his neck. “The pair of you are legacies.”
Smoke’s eyes found Sid’s on his. The look in her eyes was more of an affirmation than puzzlement. It left him off guard a little. He was thinking the same thing though. The missing piece inside of him started to be filled by what Titus had just said. “Keep talking, gargoyle.”
“Fine then. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you both.” Titus’s heavy stare went back and forth between the two of them as he spoke. “You’re offspring.”
Smoke bent his ear and said, “I beg your pardon.”
“You heard me. Offspring. The both of you.” A wily smile formed on his face. “You are very much like me. You know your heart is tainted with black. Really, John Smoke, do you think any mortal man could do what you can do? Your instincts and abilities are far greater than the average man’s. You’ve tried to deny it too long, but now your family has come calling. You’re the rebel son.”
Sneering, Smoke replied, “I’m not anything like any of you. I die and bleed like any man.”
“Have you actually died?”
Smoke had backed up, pondering the thought, when Sid jumped in. “You said both of us.”
“Yes, sister—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Don’t be so touchy, but you are
part of a tainted generation. You have your own skills too, though they are more latent. According to the record, the pair of you will produce mighty offspring.”
Sid’s expression turned clammy, and Smoke said to her, “Don’t believe him. They’re all liars.”
Titus gave a shrug. “True, we all do lie. Quite often. But that’s only because it’s so effective on people. Stupid people.” He chuckled. “Let me take a moment to explain your dilemma, which you should by all means have sense enough to embrace as a blessing. You are the offspring of shifters who mated with humans. Normally—well, quite often—a male shifter impregnates a female mortal, who dies in childbirth. The children rarely survive. They just turn out to be monstrosities. But in your case, things are a little more special. A female shifter is impregnated by a mortal male. Typically, there is no conception, but rarely, it takes. Bing bang boom, here you are.”
Hairs standing up on his neck, Smoke shut the coffin lid and sealed it closed. He shoved the coffin back into the hearse and slammed the door.
“Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 35
Sid slipped the Hellcat in between a couple of semis and placed the car in park. “That was a pretty short trip,” she said. “Care to fill me in?”
Smoke opened up the door and hopped out. The truck stop was a big one, about the size of a football field, and busy. Diesel engines roared with life, and the black exhaust rolled into the hot summer air. Smoke made his way around the front of a bright-red Peterbilt and stood in front of the chrome grille. He had a perfect view of the trucks coming in and out of the stop.
Sid cozied up beside him. “Again, what’s going on?”
“I want to see where they take him.”
“I know that, but what’s bothering you?” She blocked his view. “You don’t believe that offspring story, do you?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. He felt like something was eating him up all over. Titus’s words were ringing true. They had seeped into his bones, and now they were sapping his strength.
“Come on, you know they’re liars,” she said, giving him a reassuring smile. “He even suggested that I was an offspring. It came off weird and desperate, Smoke. Don’t let them get into your head. After all we’ve been through, you’re the man I love, even if you wind up being the son of some demon spawn.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Are you serious?”
“No. If you were demon spawn, I’d have to kill you.” She grinned. “Sorry.”
“I’d do the same for you,” he said.
“I appreciate that,” she replied.
They stood side by side, faces to the wind, watching the traffic on the incoming and outgoing roads. About ten minutes later, the FBI came in a small fleet of black SUVs. It took them less than a minute to find the hearse, and thirty seconds later, they were departing. Two cars in the front, two in the rear, and someone driving the hearse in the middle.
“Time to go,” Smoke said.
“Why don’t you drive?” Sid suggested. “I think it will make you a little more comfortable.”
The phantom-black Hellcat let out a nasty exhaust note that startled a trucker in a ball cap who was walking by. At first he shouted a curse, but then, seeing the car, he smiled and gave them a thumbs up.
Accelerating out of the truck stop and merging onto the highway, Smoke caught up with the FBI convoy but remained several truck lengths back.
Sid’s phone buzzed. Checking the screen, she said, “Well I’ll be. It looks like our money has been deposited. Why don’t we just take the money and run?”
“Because that’s not any fun.”
“Agreed.” She drummed her hands on the dash. “I kinda hate to admit it, but this is more fun than the honeymoon—but just the parts when we weren’t fooling around together.”
“I can’t disagree with that.”
Sid reached over and rubbed his shoulder. “You’re all right, John.”
“I suppose, but there are too many questions that need answered. The truth is that I don’t really know who I am and where I come from. It’s always been a mystery. But somebody knows, and that somebody is screwing with me.”
“Either that, or they’re using that tidbit of information against you,” she reminded him. She eased the seat back and closed her eyes. “I need a power nap.”
“Knock yourself out.”
“Just keep your eyes on the road and don’t follow so close,” she joked. “Man, that super vitamin really drained me, but it doesn’t seem as bad as the last time.”
CHAPTER 36
Sid slept. Smoke drove. It gave him plenty of time to hash over the things Titus had said. The mere thought that he might have something inside his blood that would cause him to be some sort of abomination made Smoke sick to his stomach. But he was different. He knew that. He had always known, but not in any extraordinary way. He couldn’t change shape or anything like that, but he could sense things other people couldn’t. He could anticipate the moves of his opponents before they happened. He could feel what was going to happen next, like a sixth sense. It gave him an edge. Most of the time.
Maybe I should get some blood work done.
Sid rested in the passenger seat. Her chest rose and fell with the ease of a slumbering baby. He found it hard to believe she had some sort of curse inside her too. She was good, too good. She, like him, would rather die than become evil.
Don’t let them get in your head, Smoke.
He squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. Nothing rattled him, but today, he felt worn down. Frustration had settled in. Things were getting deeper and more personal. When he was young he had thought he was normal, but at some point he realized he wasn’t. There were too many things he could do and see that the other kids couldn’t. Without exacerbating it, he’d lain low. As time passed, he’d stopped wondering why he was different and just let himself be. Until today. Now he was wondering again. The long drive wasn’t helping. The FBI convoy was heading north toward Baltimore.
Where are they going?
After an hour-and-fifteen-minute drive, Smoke got his answer. The convoy slunk off the Baltimore Beltway on interstate 695 and cruised up to a place called Hawkins Point, right on the bay. With nothing but a dead end ahead, he pulled the Hellcat onto the berm and shut off the engine.
Sidney stirred. Her eyes blinked open, and she wiped her mouth.
“Enjoy your little nap, honey?” Smoke said while he reached into the backseat and snagged their goggles.
“How long have I been out?”
“Over an hour.” He put his goggles on and handed hers to her. “An hour and fifteen minutes, to be precise.”
She sat up in her seat, yawned, and stretched her arms out from side to side. Putting her goggles on and peering out the front window, she said, “Why are we in Baltimore?”
“Good question.” With his eyesight magnified by the goggles, he got a clean look at the FBI crew. There were eight men and women, looking official in their black FBI ball caps and short-sleeved black summer uniforms. Moving with the purpose of black ants, four of them pulled the coffin out of the hearse and carried it over to the concrete dock. A boat was approaching from the Patapsco River. It was a thirty-foot-long pontoon boat with two men on board. They ran the boat alongside the dock, splashing up and down on the edge.
“Someone’s picking up our friend.” Smoke started the engine and backed the car up off the road into a small grove of trees. Less than a minute later, the four FBI vehicles flew right by them and disappeared up the road and out of sight. He drove the car down to the dock, where he picked up the sight of the pontoon boat again. He pointed. “There.”
“I see it,” Sid said. “It looks like they’re heading to Fort Carroll.”
“What a great place to hide…something.” Fort Carroll was a hexagon-shaped three-and-a-half-acre artificial island. Even with the goggles, all Smoke could see were three tiers of stone wall, some overgrowth of vegetation, and ugly trees hosting
local sea birds. “It was designed by Robert E. Lee and constructed in 1847, designed to protect America’s most important ports, back in the day. In 1921, the army pulled out the last of its assets. It’s been pretty much abandoned ever since.”
“That was a fine history lesson. Maybe we should put you on Jeopardy.”
With a little shift of his shoulders, he said, “I know things.”
The coffin-laden craft disappeared around the island.
“Huh.” He put the car in gear and drove away. “Why don’t you get Sam and Guppy to see what they can find out about Fort Carrol? Last I heard, they were going to turn it into a casino. That was the rumor when I was a kid. But I’d be curious to hear if it’s still privately owned.”
“Sure.” She started texting. “Anything for my man.”
“Anything?” His brow arched. “I like that.”
Crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Sid had a bird’s-eye view of the island through her window. “I don’t see the boat anywhere. It has to be in there. Why would the FBI be taking Titus there?”
“Do you see any other activity?”
“Uh…as a matter of fact, there’s a small crane and Bobcat loader. No people though.” Her phone buzzed. Checking the screen, she said, “I can’t believe it.”
“What?” Smoke asked.
Sid let out an angry sigh. “I can’t believe this. According to Guppy, Drake Properties owns it.” She dug her fingernails into Smoke’s thigh. “I’m going to kill Cyrus!”
CHAPTER 37
Back inside FBI headquarters, Smoke and Sid were in a heated conversation with Cyrus Tweel and Rebecca Lang. They’d been going back and forth for ten minutes when Jane, Cyrus’s secretary, popped her head in the door and said, “I can hear you. Loud.”
Red cheeked with his sleeves rolled up over his flabby arms, Cyrus said, “Everyone, take a break and take a seat.” He sighed through his nose. “Please.”
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files: Special Edition Fantasy Bundle, Books 6 thru 10 (Smoke Special Edition Book 2) Page 24